Hat-trick for Kateel; BJP wins Dakshina Kannada for eighth term

MANGALURU: BJP candidate and sitting MP Nalin Kumar Kateel has bagged a hat-trick victory in Dakshina Kannada constituency by defeating Mithun Rai, his main opponent from Congress.
Deputy commissioner and returning officer S Sasikanth Senthil declared Kateel as the winner after the completion of counting of votes polled in the constituency, which includes eight Assembly segments of Dakshina Kannada district. Kateel has won the election by a margin of 2,74,621 votes against Rai.While Kateel bagged 7,74,285 votes, 4,99,664 votes polled in favour of Rai.
Kateel was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 2009 after defeating Congress candidate B Janardhan Poojary with a margin of 40,420 votes. In 2014, he was re-elected by a margin of 1,43,709 votes.
Once a Congress bastion, Dakshina Kannada has now turned into stronghold of the BJP. Congress could not win the constituency ever since 1991 Lok Sabha Poll.
While V Dhananjay Kumar of BJP has won four times from Dakshina Kannada from 1991, D V Sadananda Gowda won in 2004 and thereafter Kateel has been representing the constituency for the past ten years from 2009.
Votes Polled
Nalin Kumar Kateel (BJP) - 7,74,285
Mithun M Rai (Congress) - 4,99,664
Sathish Salian (BSP) – 4,713
Mohammad Eliyas (SDPI) – 46,839
Vijay Shreenivas (Uttam Prajakiya Party) – 1,629
Supreeth Kumar Poojary (Hindustan Janta Party) - 948
Abdul Hameed (Ind) - 554
Alexander (Ind) – 2,752
Deepak Rajesh Coelho (Ind) - 748
Mohammad Khalid (Ind) - 602
Maxim Pinto (Ind) - 908
Venkatesh Bende (Ind) – 1,702
H Suresh Poojary (Ind) – 2,315
None of the Above – 7,380